nigger

Noun

nigger (plural niggers)

1. (ethnic, offensive, slur, vulgar) A black person; a person of black African descent.
   • It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger—but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither.1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XV, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 133
   • “Othello with his occupation gone,” she teased. “Othello was a nigger,” I said.1929, Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 274
   1. (ethnic, offensive, slang, slur, vulgar) A person of black African descent who behaves badly or unconventionally (whether the speaker approves or disapproves).
      • There's black people, and there's niggers. And niggers have got to go. Every time black people wanna have a good time, ign'ant-ass niggers fuck it up.1996, Chris Rock: Bring the Pain, Chris Rock (actor)
      • See, niggers are followers, blacks normally lead.
        Niggers call blacks "whitewash" soon as they on the scene.2008, “The N Word”, in Greydon Square (music), The CPT Theorem
2. (ethnic, offensive, slur, vulgar) A member of any typically dark-skinned people (now especially in combinations like prairie nigger or sand nigger).
   • He never lost his appetite -
     He bigger grew and bigger;
     And proved, with every inch of height,
     A nigger is a nigger.1880 June 19, Henry Kendall, “My Piccaninny”, in The Australian Town and Country Journal, page 28, column 4
   • Many of the rank and file had no better conception of the proud and sensitive Maori than was implied in the degrading ‘nigger’ theory, invariably applied by the unthinking Briton to all coloured races.1902, George Stoddart Whitmore, The Last Maori War in New Zealand..., page vi
3. (African-American Vernacular) A friend, particularly a fellow black person (often as an informal term of address).
   • “Snoop Dog!” one of them yelled. “That’s my nigga from Long Beach, man.”1997, McKinley Lee, Chosen by Fate: My Life inside Death Row Records, →ISBN
   • I wonna say whassup to all my Niggers, you know, peace and one love.2001 Autumn-Winter, Awad Ibrahim, quoting ‘Sam’, “Hey, whadap homeboy?”, in Taboo, page 94

   Synonyms:

   homie, nigga

4. (figuratively, especially African-American Vernacular, otherwise offensive) A person of any kind (particularly as a term of abuse).
   • People be surprised. I have friends who're all kinds a letters. Everybody loves me an' I love everybody. I got friends who are Ls, I got friends who are Bs, and I got friends who are Gs. But the Ts hate my fucking guts. And I don't blame 'em! It's not their fault. It's mine. I can't stop tellin'...2021, Dave Chapelle, The Closer
5. (especially, offensive) A member of a group that is oppressed or marginalized in the manner of black people.
   • The governor made it into office by campaigning against the niggers. And people should understand who the niggers are. It's the elderly one week. Then it's those on public assistance. Now he sees women as niggers, and he's trying to do them in.1979 April 14, Jil Clark, Mel King, King Axes Women's Commission, page 1
   • It's time for somebody to lead all of America's Niggers," he said at the Capitol Hill press conference when Shirley Chisholm announced she was running for president, "and by this I mean the Young, the Black, the Brown, the Women, the Poor—all the people who feel left out of the political process....1972, Ron Dellums, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, →ISBN, page 58
6. (offensive) Any member of species Girella tricuspidata (luderick).
7. (dated, offensive) A dark brown nymphalid butterfly, Orsotriaena medus, of south Asia, southeast Asia, and Australia.
   • Nigger (Male) Orsotriaena medus moira Waterhouse and Lyell. 1914.1932, Gustavus Athol Waterhouse, What Butterfly is That?: A Guide to the Butterflies of Australia, page 112
   • The Nigger is a common butterfly in Singapore and can be found in the company of bush browns.2010, Khew Sin Khoon, A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Singapore, page 69
8. (Cornwall, UK, archaic, offensive) A kind of sea cucumber, Holothuria forskali, the cotton-spinner.
9. (archaic, offensive) The larva of the turnip sawfly, an agricultural pest.
   • To this group belongs the nigger, or black caterpillar of the turnip, which is often in sufficient numbers to do much mischief.1873, Nature, volume 7, page 448
10. (archaic) An impurity in the covering of an electrical conductor which serves to make a partial short circuit, and thus becomes sufficiently heated to burn and destroy the insulation.
    • Now to locate the portion of the machine which contains the "nigger."1892, Western Electrician, volume 11, page 72
11. (archaic) A strong iron-bound timber with sharp teeth or spikes protruding from its front face, forming part of the machinery of a sawmill, and used in canting logs, etc.
    • A sawyer will come along and be touted and recommended as the best in the country when his chief qualifications will be his ability to jerk the carriage back and forth in a hurry without striking the bumper or to turn the log with the nigger […]1918, Leonard L. Shertzer, How to Build and Operate a Sawmill, page 20
    • The word “nigger” means to the backwoodsman a small log placed when blazing, across large logs to fire them; by tending the fire so made, large logs are divided more quickly than by an ax—consequently “a nigger in a woodpile” means something which destroys it and not, as I had supposed, our African...[1919, Laura Fletcher Hodges, Early Indianapolis, page 16
12. (US, archaic) A steam-capstan on some Mississippi river boats, used to haul the boat over bars and snags by a rope fastened to a tree on the bank.
    • Well, it's a big heavy line, and you operate the nigger — capstan it's also called — by steam. You wrap your line around that and keep taking in the slack, and that draws up them things.1983, Goldenseal, volume 9, page 20
13. (dated) A black screen used in conjunction with the camera to block light or produce special lighting effects.
    • Care should be taken to check visually from the position occupied by the subject and from the camera also, to ascertain that the nigger is positioned correctly and does not obstruct the picture area.1961, Peter Snow, Electronic Flashlight Photography, page 114

Verb

nigger (third-person singular simple present niggers, present participle niggering, simple past and past participle niggered)

1. (dated, transitive) To clear land by laying light pieces of round timber across the trunks of the trees and setting fire to them at the point of contact, by which means the trees are slowly burned through.
   • […] he resorted to the practice of “niggering,” as it is called: which is simply laying light pieces of round timber across the trunks of the trees and setting fire to them at the point of contact; by which means the trees are slowly burned through.1844, J. W. Dunbar Moodie, “The Ould Dhragoon; or, a visit to the beaver meadow”, in Literary garland, volume 2, Lovell & Gibson, page 360
   • The operation was this: they placed smaller logs and dry rubbish across the log and applied fire to them; this was called “niggering”.1914, Indiana State Teachers Association, Readings in Indiana history, Indiana University, History Section, page 171
2. (dated, transitive) To exhaust (soil) by cropping it year by year without manure.
3. (intransitive, offensive) To perform in blackface.
   • There is a general agreement that niggering took over from mummering to keep up the old custom.1976, Cake and Cockhorse, volume 7, page 220
4. (intransitive, offensive) To behave as a stereotypical black person.
   • His father said, “Niggering, I was niggering about. You knew that surely.”1989, Reynolds Price, The surface of earth, Ballantine Books, page 120
   • Forrest’s rediscovery of his father coincides with his discovery that old Robinson’s “niggering around” produced at least one child of mixed race.2007, George Hovis, Vale of Humility: Plain Folk in Contemporary North Carolina Fiction, Univ of South Carolina Press, page 86
5. (offensive, transitive, uncommon) To treat as inferior.
   • The gated community is a powerful tool in the systematic and sustained niggering of local 3rd-world communities - namely, in the book, the Hispanic (mostly wetbacK^([sic])) community[.]1997 January 18, Joe Frisch, “Anglo-US relations under a Blair Government”, in uk.org.mensa (Usenet)
   • > He is on TV saying that he was "abused" by the police and treated like a nigger.1999 December 3, Jeff Welch, “Who is McGuyver and why was he "niggered"?”, in seattle.general, December 3 (Usenet)

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Nigger

UK/ˈnɪɡə/US/ˈnɪɡəɹ/

Nigger

1. (historical, offensive) A given name for a black pet.
   • Gibson's real affinity is with his dog, Nigger. When we first see Gibson returning from a raid, he is overjoyed to see his four-legged friend […]2000, Tony Williams, Structures of Desire: British Cinema, 1939-1955, page 190

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Nigger

UK/ˈnɪɡə/US/ˈnɪɡəɹ/

Nigger

1. (derogatory, highly offensive) Niger (nation).
   • Recently the head
     nigger arrested 60 children from Benin, Togo, Niggeria, Ghana and
     Nigger, along with 20 of their Slave Masters, who were immigrants from
     West Africoonia.2005 February 5, \/\/0RD@true.org, “MORE SOUTH AFRICAN TNB”, in soc.culture.south-africa (Usenet)
   • >Why are you critters so ashamed of being identified with your
     >Africoonian origins? Niggeria and Nigger have vast amounts of natural
     >resources[…]2005 December 27, Wavy G, “~~~ I Loved Stanley Tookie Williams ~~~”, in alt.tv.real-world (Usenet)